I: American civic life --

America's search for a public philosophy --

Beyond individualism: Democrats and community --

The politics of easy virtue --

Big ideas --

The problem with civility --

Impeachment--then and now --

Robert F. Kennedy's promise --

II: Moral and political arguments --

Against state lotteries --

Commercials in the classroom --

Branding the public realm --

Sports and civic identity --

History for sale --

The market for merit --

Should we buy the right to pollute? --

Honor and resentment --

Arguing affirmative action --

Should victims have a say in sentencing? --

Clinton and Kant on lying --

Is there a right to assisted suicide? --

Embryo ethics: the moral logic of stem cell research --

Moral argument and liberal toleration: abortion and homosexuality --

III: Liberalism, pluralism, and community --

Morality and the liberal ideal --

The procedural republic and the unencumbered self --

Justice as membership --

The peril of extinction --

Dewey's liberalism and ours --

Mastery and Hubris in Judaism: what's wrong with playing God? --

Political liberalism --

Remembering Rawls --

The limits of communitarianism.